I have been pondering the idea of NO CROWS. What would this mean to my garden? There seem to be fewer and fewer small birds, altho' perhaps we are between migrations. I still have all my chestnut-backed chickadees, towhees are raising a second family, but no nuthatches, few titmice, no phoebes this year, haven't seen the hooded orioles for awhile and even my beloved bushtits seem few and far between. My friend and I were thinking it was because of the crow family. So I decided to read up on crows, members of the Corvid genus which includes Ravens and Jays as well. I have been most concerned about the Marbled Murrelet(see my article below) and the fact that the corvids could be responsible for this seabird's struggle for survival. The more I thought about the Jays and the Ravens and the Crows.....that's what got me to thinking what if they were gone? Sounded IDEAL to me and that would mean more little birds that I love, right? Well, maybe not. Interestingly I came across this article, http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/crowfaq.htm#compens . This guy is a scientist and has some pretty interesting observations about what happens when a predator is removed from a situation. Over and over science has observed that another predator would come in place of the removed predator and that very little would change. I found this whole article terribly interesting. This guy appears to love crows as well and presents a good case for them, describing their families, their intelligence and their ability to recognize individual humans. I also found it interesting that a baby crow may stay to help the FAMILY for YEARS! I always thought my friend was teasing me when she said it's the SAME BABY AS LAST YEAR; year after year she has said this. I NEVER thought that it was true. Well IT IS TRUE.